On Saturday,
November 9 in the southern Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) Viswanathan
Anand will begin his world title defence against world number one Magnus
Carlsen.

43-year-old
Indian hero Anand has been World Champion since 2007, surviving title defences
against Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand.

Carlsen
has been world number one almost continuously since January 2010 but the
22-year-old Norwegian only earned the right to challenge Anand by the narrowest
possible margin - a controversial tiebreak after finishing equal with Kramnik
at the London Candidates tournament in March.

Carlsen
enters the match as a heavy favorite - he has a Federer-like streak of 2800+
performances which began three years ago and has achieved the highest rating in
chess history (ignoring rating inflation).

Ladbrokes
betting agency currently lists Carlsen as a 3 to 1 on favourite but given his
extensive match experience many pundits are expecting a spirited title defence
by Anand against a player little more than half his age.

Both
players are popular with chess fans, so neutral observers will be torn; it seems that younger players want the
Norwegian to usher in a new era while older aficionados are hoping for an Anand
win.

The match
is a best-of-12 contest, with tiebreakers if a 6-6 score is reached. The winner
will earn $1.45m and the loser just under $1m, though the sums will be closer
together should the match go to tiebreakers. Carlsen has already pocketed
$137,000 of the prize fund for agreeing to play on his opponent's home turf,
spending the money bringing his own bodyguard and his own chef to Chennai. (No
doubt Carlsen is aware of the view of one of Chennai's leading sports editors
that "Anand can't beat Carlsen, but Chennai might."

Magnus in 2005 in Wijk aan Zee, Photo Cathy Rogers

Since
only a tiny percentage of chess fans will be travelling to Chennai - and the playing hall at the Hyatt
Regency holds less than 500 people -
this Couch Potato's Guide is designed for the many millions who will
choose to watch the match from home or office, via the wonders of the internet.

In recent
years, some of the most interesting coverage of the match has sprung up from
unexpected sources, so keep your eyes open for the Twitter account of a
chambermaid in the Hyatt Regency ("Caught trying on Mrs Anand's clothes. Mistaken for Mr Anand's secret
second Tania Sachdev and told to prepare the Hennig-Schara Gambit. Surely that
just loses a pawn?") - or a Chennai taxi driver ("Just drove a tall Danish chessplayer from the airport to the Hyatt.
Says he is helping Carlsen and Anand on alternate days.)
Before
the Games

Games
begin at 4.30am New York time - winter time will have kicked in the week before
the match - so US fans will need to be extra-dedicated to see all the action
from Chennai.

A healthy
supply of comestibles will be essential and what better to get into the Indian
spirit than some potato dosa - crunchy patties with a bit of bite.

You will
need a couple of potatoes, two green chillies, coriander plus oil, salt and
rice flour (though Indian maida flour would be ideal). Just grate the potatoes,
add two tablespoons of flour and a pinch of salt. Mixed with a small amount of
water, plus the chopped chillies and coriander this will make a thick batter.

Prepare
the mixture overnight and, once the games have reached the boring part just
after the opening, pour blobs of batter into a hot pan and fry until both sides
are brown.

If you
are an Anand supporter, serve with mango chutney, while a Carlsen supporter
should garnish the dosa with sour cream and pretend you are eating lefse.

Photo Cathy Rogers

During
the Games

Audio
and video commentary
has come a long way in recent years.

The
official site, http://chennai2013.fide.com/ , should be the first port of
call, if only for the video of the players. The Chennai organisers have gone
with Susan Polgar and Laurence Trent as their primary commentators. While
obviously less able to comment on the subtleties of the game compared to the
star English language commentators of Moscow 2012 - Kramnik, Svidler and Leko
in particular - these two showed at the recent Tromso World Cup that they were
genuine chess fans and worked well together.

Expect
the always-entertaining Garry Kasparov to drop by for a chat when he visits
Chennai.

Playchess, will offer commentary in four languages, with the most experienced
commentator in the world, Leontxo Garcia, as the Spanish host. As expected,
easy-listening GMs Yasser Seirawan and Daniel King will be the trans-Atlantic
anchors for Playchess's English language commentary, with guests including
Alejandro Ramirez and, notably, French star Maxime Vachier Lagrave for game 10.

Internet Chess Club, at one time the undisputed king
of chess commentary and still a reliable option, will be covering the World
Championship games in English and Spanish and using a wider variety of
commentators than Playchess. Most are from the US - including veterans
Christiansen, Yermolinsky and Fedorowicz. However the line-up also includes
one-night-only appearances by The Week in Chess' Mark Crowther and other
Englishmen Jon Speelman and Daniel King. (Yes, King and Seirawan will moonlight
for ICC on an off day from Playchess!). Sadly Peter Svidler's Russian team
commitments in November do not allow him to join the ICC team.

The
Indian public broadcaster Doordarshan is planning to cover every
playing session in full on its sports station, DD Sports. It is unclear whether
they will relay the official commentary or create their own programming. DD
Sports can be watched via various web sites including http://www.turbotv.in/dd-sports-live/ .
Text
commentary
Sergey
Shipov has always been regarded as the king of text commentators (primarily
working for Crestbook), and Google Translate enabled many
non-Russian fans to follow him. However Shipov has recently been working for Chess.tv - a non-stop chess television
station, primarily in Russian, so only fans with Russian skills can now enjoy
Shipov's thoughts. If Shipov returns to Crestbook for this match, he is always
worth a look, given his wilingness to look beyond computer assessments and trust
his own judgement.

Chessdom have gone for some surprising annotators -
Sachdev, Gujrathi and Hambleton, the first two of whom may have some useful
local knowledge. Chessdom will also be a site to watch throughout the match
because it is the global news partner for the organisers.

The real
development for text commentary in 2013 is likely to be via live blogging and
tweeting. Finding the right person to follow
may be a matter of luck, but there are sure to be plenty of interesting
Indian sites, while German readers can be sure that Stefan Loeffler will never
shy away from a controversy.
After
the Games

As soon
as the games finish, the two players will be ushered into a press conference,
which should be viewable on the official match site as it happens.

Chess.com
are expecting few US fans to watch the games live from early morning and so
have planned a 2 hour post-game show, using the
skills of Chess Vibes' Peter Doggers to provide video
and other colour.

One site
always worth a visit is The
Week in Chess.
Apart from having every recent top game available for easy download, TWIC has
started providing quality baseline annotations, often using quotes from the
players.

A few
hours after the game is completed, there should be plenty of material on
Youtube - game videos from ICC and Chess.com, plus plenty of contributions from
enthusiastic amateurs. Chess Vibes, soon to be part of Chess.com, usually has
the best edited highlights package.

Post-game
text annotations - often near identical thanks to the all-powerful Houdini -
will soon start to spring up. ChessBase continues to find young and
entertaining annotators for big tournaments, while Denis
Monokroussos
provides a worthy symbiosis of man and machine.

Another
blog to follow will be Eric van Reem's Mate
in Chennai.
Van Reem is part of the Anand team and, though he tries not to give too much
away, is a good barometer of the spirit in the Anand camp.

Of course
Chess Life Online will also cover the match, with regular reports by this
writer from Chennai.

Once you
have endured a week of waking at 4am, following the games online, eating the dosa,
watching the post-game press conferences and the post-mortem shows, you will
probably be sacked for being constantly late for work.

However
that will give you extra time to fully enjoy the final fortnight of the match,
reading all the articles
about the match
perhaps learning to cook some other - healthier - Indian
dishes in
the process.

Then,
whether Carlsen triumphs or Anand confounds the pundits, you can go out and
find a new job - Indian chef, perhaps?
2013
World Championship Match Schedule

Game 1 Saturday November 9 (All games at 3pm Chennai time = 4.30am EST)
Game 2 Sunday November 10
Game 3
Tuesday November 12
Game 4
Wednesday November 13
Game 5
Friday November 15
Game 6
Saturday November 16
Game 7
Monday November 18
Game 8
Tuesday November 19
Game 9
Thursday November 21
Game 10
Friday November 22
Game 11
Sunday November 24
Game 12
Tuesday November 26

Playoffs
(if needed) Thursday November 28

Note: The
schedule may change by up to four days if players take their medical time-outs.